


Beyond What Is Normal

by RabidWeezul



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M, Puzzleshipping, but not really, many of them start out as dicks but dont worry there will be character growth lol, mild violence, mostly kind of follows canon, no betas we stride confidently into the afterlife like pharaohs, noncon that doesnt come to pass, yami dont abide with that shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26954083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RabidWeezul/pseuds/RabidWeezul
Summary: Yugi Mutou has completed the most interesting puzzle he's ever had the pleasure of figuring out. It supposedly has a magic power that will grant him one wish. Yugi has always wanted a friend. So that is what he asks for.The spirit has not known reality for millennia. He is suddenly awoken by the hand of another, and has to get used to the feeling of being "alive" once more.This story is mostly about how these two separate people learn to share a body and to share their minds. It is a blessing and a curse, and will take a long time to come to terms with. But it gives them both the most remarkable relationship either has ever had. A partnership. And a love deeper and more complex than would otherwise be possible.
Relationships: Atem/Mutou Yuugi
Comments: 35
Kudos: 22





	1. New Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is the first fic I've had the courage to post in seven years.
> 
> And I'm determined not to delete it this time lmao.
> 
> The remarkable relationship that these men have has intrigued me to no end. I have so many ideas I want to explore, and I hope you'll have just as much fun reading about them as I will have writing them.
> 
> The tags will increase and the rating will change as the story progresses, but I'll be sure to alert you to those changes as they happen, so you can opt out if you need.
> 
> Also, I may be making this into a podfic! Once I figure out how to post audio on this site haha. Any tips would be appreciated.
> 
> I wish you all a beautiful day and lots of love.
> 
> Alice

Darkness.

Darkness is all they know.

They have no sense of self. Floating feelingless. Trapped in unreality. Without thought nor memory, wants nor desires, care nor interest. Time does not exist for them. There is absolutely nothing.

Until there is something.

Suddenly he finds himself taking a deep, gasping breath. Like it’s the first time air has ever hit his lungs. As if he’d forgotten for the longest time that breathing was a thing people did. “He”, “people…” that’s right. He is a being. He is real. He exists, and there is existence outside of himself.

He is disoriented as the world forms around him. The Nothing became Something. He is submerged in deep, cold water. Or… air? He can breathe, but he is beheld to no gravity. Not air, but not water either. He opens his eyes for the first time in three thousand years.

* * *

Today is the day he’s finally going to finish it. The three-dimensional ancient puzzle his grandfather had trusted him with will soon be complete. After seven long years of trying to figure out its complex secrets, he’s finally won the game.

The last solid gold puzzle piece is sitting on his desk next to the nearly-complete puzzle. He hasn’t touched it since he found the final complex interlocking shapes needed to finish it. But… for some reason, he couldn’t put in the final piece. There was some sort of grand significance to the completion of the puzzle that he hadn’t been ready for.

But today he has steeled himself. He’s going to do it. There is a small twinge of disappointment that the hardest puzzle he’d ever had the pleasure of figuring out was about to be done, but mostly he feels electric with excitement. The moment he’d gotten home from school, he had bolted up the stairs with no more than two words to his grandfather. It was all he’d been able to think about all day.

Solid gold is far weightier in the hand than it looks. He picks up the piece with the eye of Horus emblazoned regally across the raised surface, relishing the feeling of it in his hand. This is it.

With a steadying breath and a smile, he fits the last piece of the puzzle into its perfectly nestled home.

All at once, a gust of wind is whipping his hair back. He has to quickly grip the desk to keep from falling backwards. It’s accompanied by a flash of white light and an indescribable sound of deep reverberance. And then the gust is gone. As suddenly as it had arrived. Wide-eyed, his chair hits the floor.

Yugi looks down at the artifact. It is sitting innocently exactly as it had been moments before. Only now… it is complete. Complete! Yugi gives a big whoop and springs from his chair, pumping the air, the strange moment forgotten. He grabs it and spins around before clutching it to his chest. After a moment and with a wide grin, Yugi slips the chain he’d gotten for it over his head.

It is the biggest, flashiest, (tackiest?) necklace possibly anyone has ever known.

And he loves it.

He peacocks in front of his mirror for a bit, and then giggles at his own silliness. What a day! What a momentous occasion! He can’t help the wide grin that’s making his cheeks ache. He cradles the relic to his chest.

 _Oh fuck!_ He realizes. _I’ve forgotten the most important part!_ He brings the eye of Horus level with his own and takes a deep breath. He’s been waiting for this for so long.

“Puzzle…? Hi, I’m Yugi. If you really can grant wishes, I, um. I’d really like some friends.” This feels a little stupid.

He clears his throat and straitens up and repeats with as much authority as he can, “Puzzle! I wish that I will be able to find a friend to keep me company and play games with me, and…” His confidence fizzles out. “Um, and just to… be with me? So I won’t be lonely anymore. Thanks,” he finishes lamely.

Nothing happens. Is something supposed to happen, or does his wish just come to pass at some point in the future without making a big deal about it like a monkey’s paw? Is it like with genies? Oh god, what if he wasn’t specific enough?! What if he does find a friend, but it’s when he’s like eighty years old and on his deathbead?? What if it IS like a monkey’s paw, and something horribly ironic happens in order to make his wish come true?? He paces briefly, hand scrunching up his hair, and then collapses on his bed.

He’s being stupid. Either magic is real, or it isn’t, and he’d make a friend or he wouldn’t. He accepted long ago that only a miracle would make someone want to hang out with him, so he’d been obsessed with this project ever since his grandpa had brought the puzzle box to him and told him that once completed, the entrancing artifact would grant one wish. “Make it a good one!” Solomon had winked.

At the very least, he is completely sure about his choice of a wish. If he can have one thing, it won’t be riches or fame. It will be a friend. Just a friend. To keep him company.

He just wants to feel like he belongs. Like he’s worth someone’s friendship.

Maybe that’s the way he should have worded it. Not “I want a friend,” but “I want the chance to be a good friend to someone.”

He sighs and curls up around the puzzle. By all reason, it should just be cold, unforgiving metal. But he swears he can feel a warmth in it. The excitement of the day gets the better of him, and soon he is asleep with the puzzle still safely around his neck.

* * *

The spirit stirs, still getting used to the feeling of feeling again. He holds up his hand in front of his eyes. He rubs his thighs together to feel the sensation of skin on skin. So, he has hands! He has skin! Does this mean he has a body?

He looks down and considers. It certainly looks like he has a body. But for some reason that feels strange to him. Like he’s not supposed to have one.

He hesitantly unfolds and tests movement. It feels like he’s swimming through something (water? air?), but he has no point of reference. Though he can see, there is nothing to greet him but a swirling darkness.

He closes his eyes again and relishes the feeling of filling his lungs. A quiet joy.

In time (time? seconds or years?), he becomes aware of a warmth. The feeling starts at his extremities, slowly penetrating deeper into his body. Before long, he is amass with the comforting feeling of Another. There is another? Is he not alone?

He sees no one else. But he’s aware of them all the same. He knows it with a certainty deep in his heart. There is someone else in this world. There is more than just himself and the foggy darkness. He knows that they will reveal themself to him in time.

Time? Time has started moving again. What a curious sensation.

* * *

It’s time for school! Yugi uncharacteristically springs out of bed as soon as his alarm goes off. He wants to take his time getting ready. Part of him is shy about how much he’s going to stick out with this giant pyramid around his neck, but he wants to practice being confident. He carefully applies his eyeliner (erasing and reapplying when he inevitably makes a mistake) and puts on his choker. _Should I go for the leather pants? That may be a bit too much. Ehhh, in for a penny, in for a pound._ He pulls on the tight, unforgiving material (it’s worth it for fashion, he insists to himself), and goes to stand in front of the mirror one last time.

He looks stupid.

His eye catches on the puzzle. It is reflecting a gleam of light from the open window. He places a gentle hand on it, almost reverently. It is beautiful. It is completely, breathtakingly beautiful.

Maybe he doesn’t look so bad after all. He allows a small smile.

 _I can do this!_ He tells himself, and grabs the rest of his things.

… School still sucks. He spends the day being ignored, except for the time that the kids Joey (short for Jonouchi, his family name) and Honda from his class push roughly past him, laughing as he almost falls over. As he steadies himself, he catches the hall monitor staring, vaguely thoughtful. Creepy. Tetsu Ushio, the hall monitor in question, is tough and towering, and has never lent a hand to anyone in need. How he got the position is beyond Yugi.

At least no one bothers him at lunch.

In fact, no one speaks to him at all all day, and he doesn’t have the courage to initiate. Maybe the puzzle takes its time granting wishes. There’s no reason to expect it to happen right away. _If at all…_ he finds himself thinking. _No! I’m putting my faith in the puzzle. It will come through for me. I have to believe. I will believe._

As he is putting on his shoes, two shadows tower over him from behind. He gulps and looks up.

Honda and Joey are sneering at him. “You just don’t know how ta not be da the way, huh?” Joey chides in a heavy Brooklyn accent. He gives a rough kick to Yugi’s side as they push past him. This isn’t new. But it stings his eyes a little more than usual because he was so excited about the slim chance he’d make a friend today.

Yugi’s sure that deep down they’re good people. They take care of each other, at the very least. Yugi firmly believes that there is good in all people.

People just don’t… show it all the time.

He’s scuffing his shoes on the dirt, kicking around the dust to procrastinate the long walk home, lost in his thoughts, when he hears a rough voice behind him.

“It’s time to teach you two an important lesson,” the authoritative voice intones with a smile in his words. Yugi whips around.

“I seen you bullying poor Yugi over there, and I just can’t bear to watch anymore.” His words are betrayed by the sheer glee in his voice. He had Honda and Joey backed up against the wall of the school, just around the corner from the other students, who are somehow blissfully unaware of what is taking place.

Yugi stared, horrified, as Ushio pins the two weaker boys against the building, and then turns to lock eyes with Yugi.

“Now of course I’m more than happy to help out, Yugi, but I will require some compensation for the trouble. How does 20,000 yen sound as a protection cost?” Ushio throws back his head in a hearty guffaw and reels around to land a punch square on Honda’s jaw. There are two of them to his one, but Ushio is such an unbelievable behemoth that he is managing to overpower them on his lonesome.

And he is no-holds-barred savage. As Ushio lands that first sucker punch on Honda, Joey throws his entire body around his arm. “Don’t you fucking touch him!” Joey growls. Ushio throws him to the ground. Honda manages to land a punch in the second that Ushio is distracted, but his victory is short lived. Ushio slams his fist into the top of Honda’s head, and he goes down like a brick.

“NO!!” Yugi yells. His feet pull him forward before he’s aware of it, and he sprints towards the tussle.

Yugi knows he doesn’t have the power to fight. But he can certainly shield them from at least one more punishing blow. He slides to a halt in front of the two prone figures, throwing up his arms to protect them.

“Don’t you hurt my friends!!” Yugi surprises all four of them as the words tumble out of his mouth, but he steels his resolve and doubles down.

“Anyone who hurts my friends has to deal with me!” He sticks his chin out obstinately, feigning a bravado he absolutely does not feel.

After a moment of startled silence, Ushio breaks out into a loud, uninhibited laugh.

“Friends?” He mimes wiping a jovial tear from his eye. “You??” He considers for a moment.

“Suit yourself,” he shrugs, and then Yugi feels the worst pain he’s ever felt in his whole life as a freight train of a fist slams his bottom jaw up into his skull.

It turns out getting punched hurts. Like a whole lot.

Still, Yugi stands his ground. The next punch erupted from the right, connecting with his eye socket, hard. He can’t help the strangled cry that forces itself from his lips.

* * *

Pain. Terrible, terrible pain.

The spirit gasps as it shoots through his body. What is this? Where is it coming from? What is happening to him?

The warmth he had felt is long since gone. In its place is a gripping fear. His mind is crazy with it. He scrambles with his mind to find some kind of purchase to cling to, something beyond the unbearable pain.

He opens his eyes, and he can see a world unfold before him.

He is not in control of his body anymore. It’s like he’s watching someone else’s dream transpire. A monster of a man is standing in front of him. Towering above. The spirit realizes that he’s on the ground. A hand that he recognizes as a pale imitation of his own comes up to shield his face.

He whimpers.

Only, it’s not him whimpering. It is coming from outside of him. A heartbreaking noise of surrender and hurt.

This is the source of his pain.

He’s watching a man get beat up from inside the eyes of his skull.

The pitiless man in front of them affects a bored expression.

“Don’t forget the protection money. All three of you are gonna have to pay up by the end of the week, or this will seem like sunshine and daisies compared to the hurt you’ll feel.” He spits on the ground and walks away.

“Yeah, well, fuck you!” Joey yells after him. The three of them slump together as the adrenaline leaves their bodies.

“Hey, Yugi…” The voice is hesitant, soft. “Thanks.”

The spirit lock eyes with him. Does he mean you? Are you Yugi?

No, he is addressing the man whose eyes you are looking through. You realize with a jolt that this is not your body at all, that you don't belong here. And then suddenly you are sucked back into the darkness, whatever connection you had been feeling severed.


	2. A Knight in Black Armor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day?? Madness!!  
> Mind the new tags. I'll reiterate them in the end notes.

Joey came out the least pulverized among the three of them and is able to lift Honda with a little help. They struggle to a drinking fountain and use it to awkwardly splash Honda in the face with some freezing water. He coughs and stirs.

“Ow,” he says.

“Yeah, buddy, no kidding,” Joey laughs.

“Did we win?” Honda’s eye quirks up hopefully.

“Oh hell no, we got our asses soundly handed to us! But it woulda been a lot worse if Yugi hadn’t been ‘ere.” He passes a kind smile over Honda’s head, and Yugi blushes, scratching his nose self-consciously.

“Yugi? Mutou?” Tristan asks, bewildered, and looks up at his kind-of sort-of rescuer. “Well fuck, I think we owe you a bit of an apology!”

“Yeah, let us treat you to a burger or two, huh?” Joey gives him a rough slap on the back from underneath Honda’s arm.

Despite everything, Joey’s ability to remain positive was infectious. Yugi found himself beaming back at him. _Ow,_ his brain told him, _maybe less smiling for now. Smiling hurts._ Nevertheless, Yugi he gives a genuine laugh and says, “You’re on!”

…

He hasn’t had so much fun in as long as he can remember. He just spent time with people! Kids his age! Who wanted him around! He is practically humming as he makes his way home. Burgers had been great, and their company had been even better. They _are_ good guys! They apologized profusely for their past deeds and seemed really genuine in their attempt to make amends.

Yugi spins around once on the sidewalk, just for the joy of it.

As he walks, he gives the puzzle a warm, appreciative look. “Thank you,” he whispers.

He slips in the back door, aiming to avoid his grandpa. Explaining away his beat up face is something he very much wants to put off. He calls a quick, “HI GRANDPA I’M HOME DON’T WAIT UP I’VE ALREADY EATEN” and shoots up the stairwell and into his room. Mission: success.

He decides to hang the puzzle up on the poster of his bed for tonight, but not before bringing the eye of Horus to his forehead. He tries to communicate to the puzzle the intense gratefulness he feels in this moment. A tear pricks at his eye and he laughs softly at himself.

No matter what happens, he swears, that as the keeper entrusted with this precious ancient relic, he will never let harm befall it. As he settles down to sleep, the last thing he feels is pride. Pride in himself for completing the puzzle, pride for sticking up for people in a sticky situation, pride for being the one lucky enough to have found himself in possession of such an amazing artifact… And pride in having made two new friends.

* * *

Having friends never gets less novel and exciting. He sends altogether too many messages over their IM page, and finds them in the school halls every day before class. He still has some deep-seated insecurities, though… He wonders if he’s coming off too strong. He doesn’t want to scare away his two new buds (Buds!), by being overbearing, but… they never push him away. They never call him a nuisance. It seems that camaraderie is contagious, and they have taken as much a liking to him as he has to them. He’s so happy he could burst.

One day, while they’re chatting in their favorite burger joint, the waitress takes pause at their table. They look up. It’s Anzu from class. She looks horrified. She tries to act normal while she stiffly takes their order, but it’s obvious she’s panicking. She rushes away before they have a chance to say anything of substance to her.

“What’s her deal?” Joey asks.

“I think she’s worried we’ll blow her cover. No one’s allowed to hold part-time jobs while enrolled at our school, remember?” Yugi muses.

“Huh. Well I ain’t no snitch. You a snitch, Yuug?” He winks and tussles Yugi’s hair. Yugi inwardly smiles at the new nickname.

“Well, she doesn’t know that! We should put her at ease when she brings us our food,” Yugi persists.

But when Anzu returns, she no longer looks fearful.

She looks livid.

She drops their plates unceremoniously onto the table. “Ketchup with that?” She all but sneers. She grabs the condiment bottles and locks eyes with them while she squirts a shit load of sauce onto their food.

“If I ever. Ever! Hear that one of you spilt the beans that I work here, I’ll-!” Her face twitches as she realizes she doesn’t have a threat ready. “You’ll be sorry!” She finishes with a short huff and storms off, shoulders rolling like a pissed jaguar.

It takes a bit for them to collect their jaws from off the floor. “Hot,” Joey admires. Honda nods vigorously. 

They leave a big tip.

* * *

Every now and then, the spirit manages a peek through the eyes that simultaneously are and aren’t his. He sees a world, complex in structure. It is unfamiliar to him. He watches snippets of “Yugi’s” life as they reveal themselves to him. He is utterly enraptured.

The boy is young, a school child still making his way through the rigors of adolescence. His familial relation is kind and boisterous, and his two friends are interesting and have a unique take on the world that’s fun to indulge. But mostly, his focus is on the boy himself.

Yugi is terribly kind, almost to a fault. He is trusting and lets himself be vulnerable in a way the spirit would find very difficult to do himself. He is a happy kid in public, and a somewhat more dour kid in private. But the spirit supposes this is common for people his age.

_How old… am I?_

He still doesn’t have a full grasp on the passage of time. He wasn’t anywhere, and then… he was here. Was there anything before that?

* * *

Joey, Honda and Yugi keep a wary eye out for Ushio, but he hasn’t made good on his threat to cream them into next week. It feels like any day the shoe could drop, but he doesn’t so much as deign to give them eye contact in the halls. Maybe something happened in his home life? There’s not much point in speculating.

But that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped paying attention.

Ushio has tells. On the days he is planning on serving it to a sucker, he gets uncommonly happy. And today is one of those days.

Yugi’s black eye is only a mottled yellow now. He hadn’t had any broken teeth. In fact, their scrape could have been much worse. There is a rare bubble of bravery building up inside of him.

He’d helped someone before. Maybe he could do it again.

He says goodbye to Honda and Joey as they start to head home, Yugi lingering by the school entrance, a placating excuse on his tongue. They shrug off and part ways.

There his is.

And he looks like a stalking predator. Yugi shivers involuntarily. There’s a feral hunger in those eyes.

Yugi tracks him to the old sports building. Ushio moves to the side door leading into the equipment room, and then pushes in.

Steeling his nerves, Yugi sneaks up and puts his ear against the door. The heavy metal door is surprisingly insulating, and making out the conversation is tough. But he does hear a woman’s muffled voice. And then a yell.

This would be the right time to bust in and make his grand rescue. But all of a sudden, he can’t move his legs. He can’t move his arms. He’s paralyzed. Paralyzed by fear, and useless to the girl in peril.

His mind starts reeling, desperately trying to force his feet forward to jump in, but still his legs won’t budge.

His heart plummets and his blood runs cold as the girl inside screams.

* * *

Something is happening outside of himself. The spirit can feel the turmoil. Strong emotions make it easier for him to connect to Yugi’s sight, so he takes the opportunity to pull himself into the land of the living. Land of the living? What an odd turn of phrase.

Yugi is frozen on the ground, ear pressed against a cold door. The feeling of cold is new; as is the sensation of the ground underneath him. He doesn’t have long to contemplate it, though. They hear a bloodcurdling wail from the other side of the door.

Someone is in trouble. And Yugi’s not doing anything about it. The spirit waits a moment, and still Yugi does not move. Does he wish this girl harm? Why is he not helping her?

A great rage washes hot through his veins. He thought Yugi a better man than this. The spirit cannot take one more moment of inaction. This has to stop. He stands.

 _He_ stands. It wasn’t Yugi. It was _him_. All at once, he’s in control of the body.

* * *

 _Is this what dissociation feels like? Am I dissociating?_ Yugi feels like he’s completely lost control of his body, as if he’s watching from afar as it makes its own decisions without him.

His body forces its way through the door. Ushio was such a brazen fool that he hadn’t even bothered to lock it.

The sight before him curdles his stomach. Ushio has forced Anzu into the wall, as he seems so fond of doing, but his aim this time isn’t money.

He has one hand around her neck and the other hiking up her skirt.

“STOP,” came a commanding cry. Did that just come out of his mouth??

Ushio spins around. His eyes are wide for a moment, caught in his filthy act, but as soon as he registers the man in front of him, Ushio’s lips curl in a cruel smile. Anzu drops to the floor and scrambles away to hide as far away as she can get in a short amount of time. Before she disappears from view, Yugi catches sight of a broken, tear-stricken face. On one of the toughest girls he knows.

His eyes snap back to Ushio, who is now looking down his nose at him and cracking his knuckles.

“Well, if it isn’t ‘you have to go through me first’ Mutou. Decided you’re the defender of nerds and chicks alike huh? You really think yer even the slightest threat to me?”

All of a sudden, Yugi's consciousness dips sideways, and he blacks out.

* * *

The anger boiling within the spirit has sharpened to a razor’s edge. He is… excited? Thrilled? Filled with a grim lust for justice. The spirit stretches his neck out and rolls his shoulders. This man will never hurt anyone ever again. He'll make certain of this.

“Do you like games of chance?” The spirit smiles indulgently.

Ushio gives a start, clearly confused. Why the fuck would he want to play games? He’s about to beat this twerp’s ass for ruining his good time.

The spirit’s hand finds the Millennium Puzzle. He caresses it gingerly. The spirit knows very little about the world around him, but he does know this puzzle. Somehow, he knows it.

And he knows how to make it work for him.

Ushio looks like he’s about to make some sort of incredulous retort, but his gaze snaps to the eye of Horus and he stills. There’s something wrong about that thing. It’s making him feel all kinds of weird.

The spirit continues, “Games are always the most fun when there is something at stake. What do you say we have a punishment game?” He’s feeling drunk on the energy radiating through the puzzle and into his hand. It’s utterly intoxicating.

Ushio’s eyes flick back up to the spirit’s. “Okay,” he finds himself saying, completely outside of his own volition.

“I just so happen to have a deck of cards with me.” The spirit reaches into Yugi’s back pocket, where he knows it to be.

“How about this? If you win, you can have your sick way with me or the girl,” the spirit speaks in a low voice. Ushio sputters. "I ain't no fa-

“But if I win…” The spirit interrupts. There is a cold threat in his eye. “I’m going to take your soul, Tetsu Ushio.”

There is a beat. Ushio attempts a nonchalant smile and instead makes a grimace. “Fine,” He says with less than his usual bravado. “What’s the game.”

The spirit surges with excitement. He _loves_ games. He loves games more than anything else in the whole world. And poor Ushio will never get to play another game ever again.

Because the spirit never loses.

“You draw a card, and then I draw a card. Whoever has the highest card wins. Simple enough?”

Ushio screws up his face in concentration and nods. _This feels bad. Why am I doing this? This is goddamned cray_ , the saner part of his brain tries to tell him. Ushio draws the card.

“Ha!” Ushio surges up in excitement. “Jack of diamonds! Beat that!”

The spirit’s cool confidence never wavers. He draws his card without looking at it and shows it to his victim.

“King of spades. I win.”

A blindingly bright black light sears at Ushio’s retinas and he hears a scream he only knows to be his own from the feeling of it tearing itself out of his throat.

The light and sound fade, and Ushio is on the floor. The spirit fondly regards his handiwork, and then lets go of the control he’d been flexing on Yugi’s body.

* * *

Yugi rouses from a world of pain. What a headache. What happened? His eyes fly open. How much time did he lose?

“Anzu! Anzu, are you alright??” He spins around from where he’d apparently collapsed on the ground (when did that happen?), his heart pounding.

“I’m here! I’m alright.” She pushes her way out from between some large plastic bins. “I’m okay,” she reiterates with a shaky voice. Her face tells a different story. She flings her arms around his shoulders and heaves out a heavy sob. “Oh, Yugi! What would have happened if you hadn't been here?” The thought of it made her start to hyperventilate. “He was going to- he was going to-” She smothers her face in Yugi’s jacket and lets herself break down. He’s never seen Anzu like this. He’s never seen _anyone_ like this.

He lets her cry for as long as she needs. Ushio is laying prone on the ground across the room. Anzu doesn't say why. They are there until the sun tucks behind the high windows and bathes them in the shadow of dusk. Then he helps her up and takes her home, leaving the strangely unconscious Ushio on the floor. Yugi has no idea what transpired, but he finds himself not really giving a shit for now. Though he isn’t feeling particularly forgiving, he calls 911 for an ambulance to come pick the brute up anyway. Yugi would never deny someone medical attention, and it looks like Ushio might need it.

The only thing picking at him is the shivering thought that he had completely lost control. He has no idea what he’d done in those minutes that he’d blacked out. He finds himself too scared to ask.

Anzu tells him that she doesn't really understood what happened that night either, but insists that in some way Yugi had saved her. He doesn't remember doing so... What horrible thing had he done when he was blacked out? Is he really capable of such violence? He feels cold and ashamed and confused, but grateful that he stopped the sickening attack on poor Anzu.

Ushio isn’t seen at school for a long time thereafter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new tags for this chapter:
> 
> #noncon that doesnt come to pass, and #yami dont abide with that shit


	3. Wow What An Asshole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three?? Three chapters in one day??? This is unprecedented!!!
> 
> I just love these boys so much, you see.
> 
> There's a new tag, by the way. This one I don't mind sharing upfront:
> 
> #many of them start out as dicks but dont worry there will be character growth lol

As it turns out, one of the things Yugi and his friends have in common is a love of Duel Monsters! Or at the very least, they indulge him when he brings his deck to school one day.

Their happy little threesome has become a foursome, and Anzu has taken to the group like she was always meant to be there. Yugi’s still nervous about the newness of it all; most highschoolers have had friends before, after all. At least once. In their life. Not Yugi!

Until now.

He takes a moment to smile around at the teens admiring his (very cool) Duel Monsters cards, heart filling once more with a grateful warmth. His hand automatically finds the puzzle. This has been the best start to a semester ever!

His friends are so intrigued by the cards, and his enthusiasm is so catching, that Joey and Anzu each get themselves starter decks to play. Honda shrugs it off, but Yugi catches him slipping a booster pack over the counter to grandpa on the sly.

Joey likes collecting powerful monsters, and Anzu likes finding cute ones and building her deck around a theme. Honda mostly just likes to look at the artwork. Everyone has their own way of getting into the game, and that’s what makes it all the more fun. Yugi, personally, likes to fill his deck with tricky traps and spells. If he was a less proud man, Yugi might let them win once in a while. But he just isn’t wired to lose on purpose. It defeats the integrity of the game. So he duels each of them to his fullest ability every time (and never loses). Respect for your partner is the most important thing in games.

And Yugi takes games very seriously.

* * *

Ever since his encounter with the bully, the spirit has been feeling stronger and more connected to the world by the day. The shadow game strengthened him.

He has come to notice that the space he floats around in is not without limit; it has a shape. Specifically, a pyramid. The spirit has become relatively comfortable with the supposition that this space he resides in is the puzzle itself. Although it is technically a prison, he does feel at home here. The spirit does not begrudge Yugi the rights to his own body, and he hasn’t attempted to take control since that night.

Not yet.

But the knowledge that he _can_ take control when he wants to is an immense comfort. He is not without autonomy. Better yet, he is not without power. He thinks wistfully back to the feeling of channeling the puzzle’s dark energy into banishing that idiot’s soul.

The spirit isn’t cruel enough to kill. He simply liberates the soul from the body. That’s not as bad as death.

Probably.

It occurs to him that he himself is a soul without a body. But he also knows that his comfortable stay in Yugi’s body is the best possible outcome for a wandering soul. Ushio is likely in the shadow realm.

But as time goes on, and he watches Yugi’s unwavering kindness first-hand, the spirit begins to soften. Yugi wouldn’t want the man to suffer longer than his due. Ushio has paid his time.

* * *

Rumor spreads that Ushio is finally out of his mysterious coma and has transferred schools. Yugi tries not to think about it too much. Although he doesn’t remember much from that night, he convinces himself that he can't possibly have had anything to do with Ushio’s collapse. Yugi is a weakling, and Ushio is huge and domineering and strong. It would have been impossible for Yugi to have hurt Ushio in any significant way. And whenever he tentatively bring the topic up with Anzu, she refuses to talk about it. It makes sense; Yugi has no concept of what a situation like that does to someone. He’d stopped Ushio before the man could do much physical harm, but the emotional harm… the mental scarring… is something that Anzu is going to have to struggle with for a long time.

Yugi wishes terrible things upon that man, even though he knows a good person is supposed to forgive and be gracious.

While playing cards during lunch and watching Anzu crush Joey once again with her superiorly crafted deck, Yugi feels… Exposed? He turns around in confusion until he locks eyes with one of his classmates. Seto Kaiba is staring straight at him, expressionless, unblinking. It’s really fucking creepy. Yugi turns around abruptly and joins back in with his friends’ conversation, silently willing the boy behind him to stop. Staring. _Please stop staring_.

The rest of the day goes normally, and his friends have jovially accepted Yugi’s invitation to bring them by the game shop for a special surprise.

“Grandpa?” Yugi calls into the bright little room. “I brought some friends over!”

Sugoroku Mutou comes springing into view behind the counter and waves them all over with a big smile. “Joey! Anzu! Honda! My my, what brings you all by today?” His cheeks are rosy and his eyes crinkle with mirth. Sugoroku had been almost as excited as Yugi to meet all his new friends. The boy needed friends. And these three seem like fine youngsters. Solomon prides himself on being a good judge of character. His boy deserves the best! And these three might just be it.

“We were told you have some kinda rare card that’s supposed ta be a big deal,” Joey informs him casually.

Sugoroku’s eyes sparkle. “Oh, Yugi, you can’t just tell everyone my secrets!” But he’s laughing and reaching underneath a desk.

“This,” he intones with significance, “Is the most precious card I own.” Everyone leans forward eagerly as he opens a small wooden box.

Resting on a bed of red velvet is a single playing card. A regal-looking, fearsome dragon.

“Blue-Eyes White Dragon…” Joey reads. “Okay. It looks cool. What makes it so special, though?” He looks up at Sugoroku quizzically.

“Well, there are only four of these cards in print the whole world over!” He relishes in the kids’ awestruck expressions. “But this card is important to me for a different reason. A very special friend gave it to me.” He smiles down at it fondly.

“A lady friend?” Joey asks. Anzu kicks him hard in the back of the shin.

The bell chimes.

“Welcome to the Game Shop! What can I help you with today?” Sugoroku asks, quickly switching into customer service mode.

At the door is none other than Seto Kaiba. He’s all business, immediately pushing forward to the counter.

“I hear you have a card I’ve been looking for-” Sugoroku snaps the box shut a second too late. “-And it seems like you do. The blue-eyes, old man. How much do you want for it?”

“It’s not for sale,” Solomon tells him sagely, and moves to store it carefully back under the counter.

“Then trade me for it! Here!” He swings the big metal briefcase he was holding onto the counter and pops it open.

The kids stare in shock and awe at the single largest collection of cards any of them have ever seen in one place. But Sugoroku is unimpressed.

“No can do, son. This card is more important to me than all that.” It’s clear by the set of his chin that this conversation is over.

Kaiba is practically shooting steam out of his ears. He narrows his eyes. “This is not the last of this,” he promises, jabbing his finger in Sugoroku’s direction. He spins haughtily upon his heel and marches out of the shop with flare.

It’s silent for a moment. “Well, that was kinda weird,” Honda comments.

* * *

The next day all three of them want to tag along again to the store. It’s become something of a habit. It was never said out loud, but they all kind of had an understanding that Yugi’s place was the one to hang out at. None of them talked much about home life, but Honda always seemed to put off going back home until as late into the night as possible, Joey spat at the floor the one time his father was brought up, and Anzu… There has to be something to the fact that she is taking up shifts at a café as a highschooler, in order to be able to chase her dream of dancing in a far away country. There is a loneliness in her eyes that Yugi empathizes with. Yugi is an orphan. His grandfather is the only family he’s ever known.

They make quite the band of misfits. Maybe that’s why they were drawn together.

“Grandpa?” Yugi calls. The light is off, but the front door is unlocked. Something's wrong.

“Grandpa?” Yugi tries again, getting more worried by the moment. The teens spread out in the small space. Everything is far too quiet.

The phone rings shrilly. Everyone jumps about a foot in the air. Yugi goes to pick it up, running his hand through his hair sheepishly. _I guess we’re all kind of on edge_ … He presses the speaker-phone button, just in case.

“Hello?”

“Yugi, I need you to come pick up your grandfather,” comes Seto’s bored voice.

“What? What does that mean? Kaiba??” But the phone line has gone dead.

Everyone is up in arms in an instant.

“What the fuck is wrong with that guy?” Honda fumes.

“No one fucks with Gramps on my watch,” Joey growls, rolling up a shirt sleeve ceremonially.

“Yugi-” Anzu starts. All eyes turn to her. “You don’t think… Kaiba would have hurt him?”

They don’t wait any longer to find out.

* * *

It’s common knowledge that the Kaibas are filthy stinkin’ rich. But there’s knowing, and then there’s seeing. And their eyes continue to go up and up as they take in the tower before them.

“What, none a you seen a skyscraper before? Let’s get a move on,” Joey chides, pushing ahead.

“I don’t really come into the city that often…” Yugi murmurs, eyes round as plates.

Joey and Honda strong-arm their way into an entrance hall much too regal to be reasonable for an office building. Everything shines. It’s too clean. And there’s a lot of metal. Like, every surface is metal. Without pause, the two boys push forward to the poor woman behind the main desk.

“Where can we find Kaiba- er- I mean- Seto? He’s a classmate of ours and he invited us over,” Honda asks unconvincingly. She gives them an odd look, but it turns out they’re in luck. Seto has called ahead and sent down for them already. Joy.

After they pile into the elevator as instructed, there’s a tense pause. “Does this feel kind of… surreal to anyone else?” Anzu asks nervously.

“Rich people,” Joey mutters under his breath. “I hate rich people. They’ve all completely lost track of reality, so high and mighty up in the clouds like that.” He spits. “Don’t expect anything good outta this guy.”

The elevator dings. “Experimental technologies,” intones a voice from above. They step out into a room with what is arguably a wastefully high ceiling for being in a skyscraper. Laying on the floor is a figure.

“Grandpa!” Yugi cries, surging forward.

“Gramps!”

“Mr. Mutou!”

“Sorry about all this,” comes a drawl from above. “I think he’s a little old for exciting new experiences like Kaiba Corp.’s state-of-the-art virtual gaming technology.”

“Kaiba!” Yugi yells, furious tears prickling his eyes. “What have you done to him?”

“Yeah, what the fuck sick kinda games you playing at? Even rich kids can go to jail for kidnapping and assault, ya _freak_!” Joey is utterly beside himself. Honda holds him back with a hand on his chest and a dark look in his eyes.

“Hold your filthy tongue, I’ve done nothing wrong here!” Kaiba snaps from up on his pedestal. “I simply invited him to have a card game, and he lost. I can’t account for why that made him stumble and fall over pitifully. It must be that weakness is a common trait in the Mutou family,” he sneers. “Anyway, I got what I want, so you can all leave now.”

“How can you be so horrible?” Tea asks in disbelief.

“What do you mean, you ‘got what you wanted’?” Honda asks slowly.

“We merely bet our best cards on the outcome of the duel. See?” Kaiba holds up a hand, and in it is the vaulted Blue-Eyes White Dragon card that Yugi's grandfather loves so dearly. With a quick twist of his wrists, Kaiba tears it cleanly in half right before their eyes.

“ _What the fuck_?” Joey roars. “You wanted the stupid card just so you could destroy it?? What’s _wrong_ with you??”

But Yugi isn’t listening anymore. There’s blood rushing in his ears.

“Yugi…” Before he can stand up, the small voice of his grandfather pulls him back to his knees. “Use my deck, please.” Yugi shakes his head in confusion. Why should he duel this prick at all? What did they have to gain from indulging this madman further?

“I don’t think this child has lost at anything in his whole life. He doesn’t understand what makes a game worth playing. He has no heart, Yugi.” The way his grandfather is looking up at him imploringly breaks his heart a little. “I know you have the power to change that in him. Open his eyes. Clear his heart.”

“Now don’t mind me, I’m not actually dying from losing at a game of cards,” he chuckles, though the smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Go teach that boy a lesson.”

“Hah!” Kaiba shouts from above. “Interesting! Are you also going to go on and on about ‘heart’ and ‘sportsmanship’? I’ll crush that out of you, too. The only pride in playing is to win. And I'll prove it by wiping the floor with you.”

“We’ve got this, Yuug,” Joey says in a surprisingly soft tone. “Go kick his ass, we’ll take care of Gramps.”

With that, Yugi stands up and faces his now opponent. Yugi is not typically an angry guy. He thinks that words and civility and understanding are the real key to winning your battles, and that anger can make monsters out of men.

But this fucker has touched a nerve.

Kaiba leads them onto blue and red platforms at either end of a large field that rise beneath their feet until they’re something like forty feet off the ground. God, what an irredeemable show-off this guy is. It’s unbearable. Yugi is in the middle of shuffling his deck when he feels it.

* * *

The spirit has been watching. And he is livid.

This man is an insult to the grand pursuit of gaming. He has insulted the spirit's host. He pretends to be lofty and powerful, but he’s just a silly child with a banking account.

The spirit swells within the puzzle. He is going to relish every moment of this game.

* * *

Joey leaves Gramps in the capable hands of Honda and Anzu. He ain’t helpin’ any here anyway, and Yugi needs a pal by his side. He runs back to the strange colosseum he’d watched them disappear into. What he finds scares him a little.

There’s something happening with Yugi.

A strange dark cloud is creeping along the floor, emanating from Yugi’s side of the platform. It makes him feel odd. The hair is pricking at his neck. He has this overwhelming sensation… Like he’s watching a lion hunt.

* * *

There is something stirring within him. And odd power. His hand falls automatically onto his puzzle, and he almost jumps at the energy he feels there. It’s like a live wire.

Something surges forward.

“Kaiba!” His voice says. He sounds strong. Commanding. Authoritative. Everything Yugi’s never actually felt before in his life.

A sensation of calm envelops him, like someone throwing a blanket over his shoulders. He finds his arms crossing. His shoulders relaxing back. His chin tilting up. More than anything, he feels…

Strong. Like even if the whole world rose up against him, he’d conquer it with ease.

What a feeling.

Something flickers in Kaiba’s expression, but then he steels himself and starts the Duel. “DRAW!”

Though the cards feel strange in the spirit’s hand, he finds he knows this game inside and out. It’s like greeting an old friend. How curious. The monsters materializing in front of him feel at home, like they never should have been trapped inside a playing card in the first place. And like him, they’ve now gotten a taste of freedom.

He draws his attention back to the strange tether he has tied to this boy’s brain. He has mostly figured out how to take command of the body without forcing Yugi into subconsciousness. Who knows how long it’ll last, but in this way… They are working as partners. Whether Yugi realizes it or not.

“DRAW!” They yell. The battle is on.

Kaiba is an interesting man. Learning about a person by dueling them is as intimate and insightful as spending a night together in bed. And Kaiba has a lot of uncontrolled emotion. He is a wild dog who thinks himself a prized thoroughbred. The spirit would very much like to duel him again, after having this taste.

Kaiba is backing them into a bit of a corner. That’s good, though. A challenge! A man worthy of effort. The spirit and Yugi move as one to draw what might very well be their last card.

The spirit smirks. _Oh, Kaiba. It would have been nice if this’d lasted a little longer. Ah, well._

Yugi and the spirit slide the five cards necessary to bring forth the great and powerful Exodia across the lit panel. It is incredibly impressive that Sugoroku was able to gather them all in the first place. Exodia is an impressive beast.

It appears Seto thinks so, too.

As Kaiba’s life points hit zero, the dark miasma of the shadow realm finally crests over his platform. With this, Kaiba is his.

A thought almost stops his hand. The thought comes from Yugi. It’s a kind one. Yugi is considering Kaiba with a sadness and a respect the man truly does not deserve.

Well. A relationship is a give and take. He can meet Yugi halfway on this one. He uses his power to steal the darkness from Seto’s heart, and leaves the boy’s soul intact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So by this time you've realized this work is not 100% canon compliant, but that's on purpose. I hope you like my retelling of episode one. It's a pretty silly episode in concept, but that's why we love this dumb series. I took the basic plot and just... threw a little soot on it. For taste.


	4. An Extremely Annoying Boat Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Um. This is the fourth chapter in less than 24 hours. I was too excited to sleep, so I'm posting this at... 4:18 am.  
> Whoops, haha  
> I have some characters I need to add to the tags because apparently the yugioh writers love to slam a shit ton of cameos all at once. they hate(d) me personally (when they wrote the script 20 years ago).  
> I decided it was time to drop the "canon compliant" tag lmao. in it's place are  
> #mostly kind of follows canon #but not really

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might notice that I'm straight-up calling Jonouchi 'Joey' despite keeping the other characters' Japanese names. I'm using the fact that it sounds like a shortened version of 'Jonouchi' as my excuse, like it's a school nickname. I was gonna mostly keep consistent with the story in using the Japanese names, but Joey Wheeler was the best thing to come out of the 4kids dub. Sorry Dan Green, we stan a legend, but I gotta be true to my heart. And my heart is full of Wayne Grayson's heavy New York accent.

Yugi is starting to have some very strange recurring dreams.

In one, he is walking through an endless labyrinth. It’s like being on the inside of an Escher print. Stairwells lead up along walls and across the ceiling. There is no reason nor gravity in this place. Passages lead nowhere. Doors open onto empty rooms or deep pits, and he swears the staircases change. Or the walls move. Nothing is as he remembers it the second time around.

In another, he is resting in a room full of toys. It reminds him of his childhood. Everything in this room is safe and comfortable and unmarred by the cruelty of the outside world. It is here that he feels the calmest. Any game he can think of appears in his hand, and his stuffed animals are always eager to challenge him. Sometimes Yugi loses. And there is no greater comfort than the knowledge that there is no pressure to win. His bunny and teddy bear companions are just in it for the love of the game. Just like Yugi is.

When he wakes, he is ashamed of the childish room, embarrassed that his subconscious would make up something so painfully innocent. Yugi's a goddamned high schooler, and is not naïve to the ways of the world. Nothing can stay as it was when you were a child. A memory of a forgotten face floats just out of reach. His mother. He knows her only from photographs; he was very young when she and his father had died. Life will never return to that simple time. There is just too much world on the other side of that playroom door.

But privately he wishes every night could be spent in that peaceful pastel playroom.

The other recurring dream is hard to describe exactly. It’s as if he’s looking into the scorching sun. He shields his face, but it’s so blinding that he can’t make anything out. There is a graininess to the air that roughs at his skin. He is unbearably hot. And then the light is gone. The sun has set. And in its place seeps a viscous cold, gripping him deep to his core.

How can one place at once be _so hot_ and also so _terribly_ cold?

He’s also been feeling… _disjointed_ for a while now. He hasn’t blacked out after that night with Anzu, but he still doesn’t always feel… Totally in control. This manifests one night in his dreams as being trussed up like a pig, tied up and gagged. He wakes, panting, to his limbs tangled tightly in the sheets, his whole body damp with sweat.

There’s also… The mortifying mornings that he has to hastily shove his pajamas in the wash. _It’s normal_ , he keeps telling himself. _It’s natural. Every kid has… urges._ He shudders internally at the world. God, can he _get_ more embarrassing? Why does being a kid have to be so shitty all the time?? He buries his head in a pillow and wishes for death.

Life as a teenager is hard.

It’s hard, and no one understands.

Except… _they_ do. His friends do. They really understand him. He can open up to them and be weird around them and feel safe. And they can be weird around him, too.

Honda has an keep obsession with motorcycles even though he doesn’t have the guts to get a license. Anzu dances on her back porch in the middle of the night when she can’t sleep. Joey seemed gruff as hell when they met, but the tough bravado and macho-boy act is actually ironic most of the time. Whether he's trying to be or not, he just might be the funniest guy Yugi’s ever met. Seriously, he could be destined for stand-up. Or maybe Yugi just has a terrible taste in humor. 

He loves them.

* * *

And through Yugi, the spirit of the millennium puzzle is starting to love them, too.

With practice, the spirit has been able to project himself outside of Yugi for short periods of time. When he’s not watching from directly behind Yugi’s eyeballs, it almost feels as if he’s a part of the group. He listens to them joke with amusement. From this vantage point, he can look at them each at his own discretion, including Yugi, whose face is so gentle and soft and gleaming. The spirit smiles silently. This life isn’t so bad.

There has to be more, though.

Being surrounded by wonderful people with whom he cannot speak… Is an incredible form of loneliness. The spirit is existing.

But he isn’t living.

At some point, he must figure out how to contact Yugi. There has to be a way to communicate with him. They share a brain! How hard can it really be to connect with him?

So far, leaps in his abilities have coincided with times of extreme duress. When Yugi needs him, he gains the strength to push his power to the next level. Because of Yugi, the spirit has been able to test himself and grow, and as he learns to interact with the world, he feels more and more… Human. Like he’s really present. Like he can exist outside of the suffocating confines of the puzzle.

Apparently nothing is easy in this poor boy’s life, as an opportunity to flex his magic again soon reveals itself to them.

* * *

“GRAMPA!” Yugi screams. Everyone unfreezes at once and suddenly Sugoroku is on the ground and isn’t moving. His soul has been taken by Pegasus, _directly through a tv screen_.

While Yugi cradles his grandfather’s head and Anzu calls emergency services, the spirit paces restlessly around the room. That man… He had Power. His magic has an extremely familiar taste, similar to the spirit’s own. He rolls the metallic feeling of it around in his mouth. The spirit knows this magic.

Something tells him that there are Millennium Items beyond just the puzzle. And this man had a curious golden eye.

* * *

It turns out to be surprisingly easy for Yugi and his friends to duck out of school for a card game tournament. Yugi obviously didn’t have anyone more to tell, but his friends have families! Won’t they be the least bit worried when their children suddenly disappear?

When he brings this up, Honda says, “My folks are used to it,” with a shrug.

“My parents won’t notice,” Anzu tells them in a matter-of-fact voice.

“I don’t give a shit what my dad thinks. I’ll deal with the fallout once I’m home.” Joey looks a little sheepish. “But I’m kinda sorry for makin’ ma and Serenity worry. It’ll be worth it though - when I bring home the prize money!” He puffs out his chest. “After all, I learned from tha best!”

Joey had been apprenticing under Sugoroku for a couple months now. He even managed to get top eight in a local tourney, which is a big step for someone who used to not own a single spell or trap card. Yugi is proud of him. Joey is the kinda guy that can do anything he puts his mind to.

Yugi hopes that he can put his best foot forward, too. His grandfather is counting on him.

On this boat are several career tournament duelers. Insector Haga, and Dinosaur Ryuzaki have just come off of a huge media frenzy after getting first and second respectively in the nationals. Yugi’s also just caught wind that Mai Kujaku is here. She’s proven herself to be a formidable opponent, tearing across the country on all the heavy stakes circuits. And anyone else around them on this boat could be just as good.

Yugi just has to be better.

Haga seems nice enough. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with celebrities. Or – whatever you call a famous card player. He's spending a little time talking with them outside, leaning against the rails. Apparently Haga's has heard of Yugi’s win against Kaiba. In fact, just about everybody seems to know. If Yugi were more paranoid, he’d say that he was walking around with a giant target on his back.

Haga's demeaner changes subtly as he directs the conversation towards rare cards.

“I hear that you beat Kaiba by doing the impossible,” Haga confides gleefully with a surreptitious glance around to make sure no one was listening in. “I heard… You’ve compiled all the cards necessary to summon Exodia.” His eyes are shining with barely contained excitement.

“Yeah, actually! Do you want to see them?” Yugi is oblivious to Joey’s narrowed eyes and Honda’s shifting stance.

“Oh, yes please!” Haga enthuses. He just looks too happy to disappoint. And what the hell, maybe Yugi is showing off a little. He carefully opens the old puzzlebox that he keeps his cards in, and pulls out the five in question with a little bit of a flourish. He’s allowed to be dramatic sometimes. Sue him! He’s soaring on a little bit of a charisma high after getting on so miraculously well with a world-famous duelist and all.

Haga makes a grab at the cards, his eyes oddly wild.

“Woah there, partner. Look, don’t touch, a’ight?” Joey warns.

“Oh, it’s okay, Joey. What’s he gonna do, throw them overboard?”

Yugi and his big mouth.

* * *

Once Yugi and Joey have been pulled safely from the briny waves and are collapsed in a heap on the deck, Joey actually has the gall to hold up two damp trading cards.

“Saved a couple of ‘em, at least,” he grins.

So, no more celeb mingling for the rest of the night.

* * *

Mai Kujaku finds them at some point and turns out to be (no, but, for real this time) a really swell lady. Not everyone in this tournament is bound to be crazy, right? He can make some lasting friendships, no problem. He’s got a ton of practice at it now.

His friends are dubious.

“For the last time, man, you gotta learn a little street smarts. You’re too damn gullible- ah- I mean- trusting. You’re too trusting,” Joey tells him. “It’s charming on you, but when it gets me pulled into the ocean, I start to wonder a little.”

“You’re the one who jumped in, as I recall,” Yugi says dryly.

“Yeah, and you right after, you nutjob!”

* * *

The sleeping accommodations were… nil. If you weren’t famous, you weren’t getting a bed. Everyone was told to pack camping gear, so most people brought sleeping bags… But not everyone had that amount of foresight. When it turns out Yugi can’t get a wink of sleep between the nerves of the tourney and the rocking of the ship, he gives up his sleeping bag to a kid he finds leaning miserably against a wall. It might as well go to someone who stands a chance at making use of it.

He’s leaning thoughtfully out over the railing, letting the sea breeze sting his face, when he sees a flash of white in his periphery. When he turns, no one is there. _Jesus Yugi, get it together_ , he tells himself.

But the spirit disagrees. Someone is there. And deliberately hiding.

He can sense it on the air. He’s certain, someone else with magic is onboard this ship.

* * *

Joey kisses the ground when they arrive. “Oh sweet Earth, I’ll never leave ya again!” Yugi has to agree. Travelling by ship is overrated, as far as his churning stomach is concerned. Maybe tonight he’ll finally be able to sleep.

“Alright, listen up!” Calls a man with helmet hair. “This is an official Industrial Illusions tournament. You’re all lucky to be here. Treat it as such.”

Anzu rolls her eyes.

“There is a time limit to this tournament, so no screwing around! If you want a place in the finals, you’ll have to hit the ground running. Good luck.”

“Oh, and one more thing. In one hour exactly, Pegasus will be holding a formal introduction to the event up at the castle. Don’t be late. It’ll be the only time some of you ever see it!” He guffaws at his own lame joke.

“You idiot, you can see the stupid thing from across the whole island,” Tea mutters under her breath. Yugi chuckles behind a hand. He loves his friends so much.

And that’s it. Some of the kids start tearing off in different directions, and some are more relaxed. Their small group is hanging on the periphery.

Yugi is _so_ excited, and also quite nervous. He can’t afford to lose even one duel. He’d split his only two star chips with Joey so he could compete, so if he loses his first round… He’s out for good.

Joey gives a start. “It’s that fucking weasel from the boat!” Pointing to a green-clad figure a little ways off currently sticking his tongue out at them. “I’m gonna kill that man,” Joey enthuses, and then tears off running.

“Come back here, you little creep! I’m gonna serve it to you for what you did!” Weevil shows no sign of stopping, and Yugi is quickly losing his breath trying to keep up. For all he likes competing, Yugi is certainly no athlete.

Haga is leading them deep into the woods. He definitely knows something they don’t.

All at once, they break out of the trees and into a wide expanse of gently waving grass. Weevil comes to a stop in the middle of the clearing and spins around slowly. He cocks his head at them, sneering. “Well if you’re so mad,” he teases, “Why don’t we have a duel about it?”

Okay, fucker, you’re on!” Joey flicks open his side holster where he's keeping his deck. He’s been secretly practicing the motion all night, so he’d be confident he looks cool doing it.

But Yugi steps forward instead. “They were my cards, Joey. Let me handle this.”

“ _You’re_ who I really wanted to duel anyway. I want to see if the man who bested Kaiba is any good without his most powerful cards.” His glasses flash in the sun. Haga seems to be really excited for this duel. Well then, a duel he shall get. Yugi’s eyes narrow. But it won’t go the way he expects.

A power Yugi hasn’t felt in more than a month begins to heat up his body. He doesn’t know where this cool confidence comes from, but he welcomes it with open arms. In this moment he feels like he can kick some wholesale ass. He swears he grows a couple inches with bravado alone.

The spirit relishes his return to the physical plane. _God, it’s good to be back_. Lately, he’s been managing to tether himself to his his soul room, away from the inky blackness of the puzzle, but it’s still wildly more comfortable out in the real world. And low and behold, he gets to play a game. A self-assured smirk spreads across his mouth. He’s going to enjoy this.

The spirit is a prideful man, and there’s nothing more satisfying then putting the hurt on someone who has done you wrong.

The ground shakes beneath them, and a full duel arena like the one he’d seen at Kaiba Corp, but much smaller, rises out of the Earth to meet them. Yugi rolls his eyes. Of course Kaiba has a thumb in this pie.

He has yet so sus out why Haga lead them all the way out here. For privacy? To be able to openly discuss his blatant cheating? Or is it something more? He steps onto the field, absentmindedly shuffling his cards. Whatever it is won’t trip the spirit up.

“DUEL!” They shout simultaneously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was reeeeeeeeeally tempted to make Tristan say “in a few hours the sun will rise,” but I couldn’t find a way to fit it in organically lol  
> in this house we stan little kuriboh until the sun burns out. I hope you're on the mend out there, Martin.
> 
> (I've used the word "stan" twice in these chapter notes. that means I'm hip with the kids, right? cool. flame on, daddy-o)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys! I've done a lot of editing, so I apologize if that affects your beautiful comments in any way. I really appreciate all of you.
> 
> Don't hesitate to comment or message if you want to talk! I love meeting new people, and I'm super new to this fandom, so it would be nice to get to know the community.
> 
> My tumblr is the same as my handle, but be warned that it is just a random assortment of whatever the hell I feel like, and not a committed yugioh blog or anything.


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